Gold Passport Concierge

After speaking with the property, self parking is still included in the resort fee. If you elect to valet park your car, that is an additional $20 per night. I found the link on www.Hyatt.com, and have sent a message to have the costs corrected. Thanks for the information!

Sincerely,

Nick B.

todorovic

Thanks for clarifying this Nick. It's great that the self-parking is free for everyone - I generally hate when there are fee exceptions for the Diamonds as I inevitably run into an employee who doesn't know anything about it and I end up spending 15 minutes educating them on their own policies (and this usually involves getting the FD manager to come up front). This way it's much easier for everyone involved.

AttorneyVin

Thanks so much for the information - I was definitely scared when I read this post, as I make at least one trip from Tampa to this property each month.

peachy3

Just completed a 5 night stay in Mid November. Here's my review:

Overall impression: Was OK. I would not stay again if I were to go to Orlando again, for any reason.

Check-in: Separate diamond line, but the staff was busy doing other paperwork and asked me to wait 10 minutes. That's okay. There were 3 other people in line for normal checkin, but I'm not sure what the staff was doing at 9pm that she couldn't quickly check me in with.

We had originally booked 3 nights which we used a diamond suite upgrade, and later on decided to stay for another 2 nights, which was a buena vista view room. At first, the staff said she could find no record of the suite upgrade, and then I showed my printed reservation after which she suddenly found it (!) I politely asked if she would kindly extend the suite upgrade to the 5 nights for us, to which she refused. I then asked what kind of suite we were upgraded to, and if any junior suites were available; she went to the back, and came back saying all were not available. Ok. Finally, I asked if the two nights in the non-suite room had a pool view or a larger view. Nope, no upgrade at all. Oh well. We were tired to say the least.

Amenity: We were given a list of things to choose from as a food/bev amenity. We chose a fruit juice and bottled water, and I'm not sure what we ticked for the food amenity but three chocolates came back, which I thought wasn't appealing. In retrospect we should have just chosen points.

Room: Requesting a high floor, which was also "unavailable", we were given a room on the 6th floor, Lake View King. At reception we asked if we could see the fireworks, or if we could change to a room which could see the fireworks from Epcot; none available either. We were given lounge access though.

The room was a decent size, and the bathroom a decent size too. Bath was big enough to actually have a bath and there are wooden benches you can put down to put toiletries on. Keep in mind the hot water needs to run quite a while before it turns to warm/hot.

Internet access complimentary for diamond and quite fast.

Issues - Hornets. There were around 30 hornets flying around out balcony. Luckily we noticed and didn't go out. They were massive, too. Bed, the bed was ridiculously squeaky; every time we rolled over during sleeping, it would squeak. Check your bed and ask for a different room.

Service: Concierge was very helpful in making bookings for the shuttles and tickets and other recommendations. Front-desk staff were not very well trained. Always chatting when I went up to ask questions, and never greeted with a smile or similar.

Lounge: Par. Maybe we are used to Asian hotels but the lounge was just OK for us. Breakfast spread, hot item each day, but for our 5 days it was: Hotcakes, Choc hotcakes (is this somehow different?), French toast, Breakfast sandwich, another type of hotcakes (???). Disappointing choices. The coffee machine was decent though, and the option of taking away drinks in take-away cups is great. As reported before, alcohol has an extra charge. Dessert was only one plate of pretty bad dessert each night.

Restaurants: White Horse - We tried the sushi here. It was awful. We do live in Japan for 1/3 of the year, but this sushi was just terrible. Fish was not fresh, rice was poorly prepared; I'm not sure how they can claim the best sushi chef around title. We also had the strip steak which was prepared very nicely, medium rare as asked. Sides were nice too. Was very crowded when we went but if you are just eating, you can sit at the bar for free seating, with the same menu.

Hemingways - This was a let down. Claiming to have great seafood, both our dishes had plentiful fish smell and were not prepared delicately. The starter was calamari which was decent but the mains, oh. We both left half our mains. Service here was pretty botched too; we could not waiters to clear our plates for a long time. Definitely not worth the price you pay expecting fine dining.

Attractions: There were 2 daily departures and 3 returns from Disney when we were there. As others have posted, the returns are quite late, and you might want to take a taxi. We took a taxi from EPCOT and it was around $20 incl tip. Apparently the taxi from Downtown Disney is around $12. I don't recommend a taxi from Magic Kingdom as it would probably be around $35-40 I think.

Free shuttles to outlet leaving at around 1030 and 1230, with returns at 1330, 1730 and 1930. Very useful, we went shopping twice.

Universal has one departure and one return IIRC.

On site, there is a pitch and putt course which was great fun. Heated pool and plenty of other pools. Kayaking, bikes, tennis courts, volleyball which we made use of. Plenty to do on site which was great. Small outdoor spa was nice too.

Check-out: At checkout the bill was reviewed and there were extra drink charges which were put on, that were consumed before I even checked-in. (???) I asked for the Gx bonus code to be put on and it didn't show up on my account either. The manager would not waive the resort fee, and would not budge at all.

Conclusion: Given the difficulty to get to other attractions, and the general subpar service standards at the property, I will not be returning. For Disney, many of the disney hotels as well as some of the other chain places around Disney such as Hilton have better properties and service. For Universal this hotel is too far and inconvenient. For a resort, I would like to have nicer rooms and restaurants.

bas5838

We had originally booked 3 nights which we used a diamond suite upgrade, and later on decided to stay for another 2 nights, which was a buena vista view room. At first, the staff said she could find no record of the suite upgrade, and then I showed my printed reservation after which she suddenly found it (!) I politely asked if she would kindly extend the suite upgrade to the 5 nights for us, to which she refused. I then asked what kind of suite we were upgraded to, and if any junior suites were available; she went to the back, and came back saying all were not available. Ok. Finally, I asked if the two nights in the non-suite room had a pool view or a larger view. Nope, no upgrade at all. Oh well. We were tired to say the least.

It is that type of attitude that sums up the hotel exactly. They do NOTHING to accomodate guests and in the words of President Obama all they say is NO, NO, NO.

At every turn it seems like the guests are a "bother" to the hotel. I have stopped staying at the propery because as much as I love Hyatt, they simply lack any sense of rightness when it comes to accomodating guests.

jtaft

Wow. These last two posts - especially the last from a Courtesy Card holder - send a very strong message indeed. I was musing about a stay at this property for a January getaway but that's off the table now.

Mary2e

I have refused to return for over 2 years. And I used to go several times a year. I hate the remodel, and it was the last straw after starting to receive horrible service when the new GM got there.

The GM has ruined this property - the front desk staff is awful and rude - and he protects them.

Maui4me1

Are you listening GP......

peachy3

Mary2e: The front desk and the service at the property are in general the things which will make me choose another place over HR Cypress anyday. Just as you said.

TINPA

I am another former regular at this property. We used to go every year and were last there 2 years ago. My kids LOVE this place, but these comments are enough to move our limited family trips elsewhere. I do watch this thread regularly, hoping to find some positive notes.

My guess is that there are enough group events at this hotel that losing the regulars has no real impact in the scheme of things. I would assume that once the negative press catches up (tripadvisor etc) - if not already - then they will start to notice. In the meantime it's too bad.

silver-tls

That's why the GM at any property is the most important. While we'll probably never get to speak with the GM, his footprints are all over the property. It filters down to his managers and to the front line employees who deal with guests.

If the front line employees know their manager doesn't care if a guest is happy or not, they won't go the extra mile. Its really sad how so many people are unemployed and these people who have jobs don't feel like they need to do it the right way.

frogss29

We stayed here for four nights in late November.
I found the front desk VERY helpful and friendly.
We were greeted, on arrival, with champagne.
We were upgraded to a lovely club room with a view of the fireworks.
They acknowledged we were Diamonds (ONLY hotel so far on our trip from SF, Boston and NYC to have done this)
It was my birthday while we were there and when the front desk found out the girl sent up a plate of olives/dips etc. Very nice touch.
The only complaint I have is the shuttle service from/to Disneyworld etc.
There are just not enough choices with times.
But that was my only complaint!

AlexB

Upon arriving at our room in the evening on Dec. 14, there was a letter informing us that the "A/C" (leaving off the critical "HV" at the beginning, on the coldest days of the past 15 years) would be off for two hours the next morning, and the "lights" (as in AC Power) would be off for one hour the next morning. The letter neglected to mention that the water would also be off the next morning. Unless guests were able to get up early, they would lose the entire morning, not a good thing given the expensive tickets most everyone would have purchased for the parks in the area.

The late notification made it too late for guests to find another hotel for the night. No effort was made to apologize or refund part or all of the night. One can conclude that the GM failed to notify guests in advance so that s/he could minimize exodus from the hotel. This is money-grubbing, pure and simple. I don't believe in rewarding bad behavior, so we will not be returning.

Edited at 11:47 AM EST: Called GP about this, and was offered 18K points in compensation. Now that's professional. Thank you, Hyatt...this is how you retain loyalty.

pork1781

We stayed here for a week in late Jan and thought the overall experience was good. I used my points for award stay, so they did not give me any upgrades.

Pros:
- We were greeted, on arrival, with champagne.
- Front desk and Regency club reps are very helpful and friendly. They even told us tricks on how to park for free in Disneyworld.

Cons:
- not enough choices for Disneyworld shuttle time.
- I was offered complimentary food or points upon arrival. I selected food for the 2nd night of my stay and it never arrived. I called the kitchen and they said I chose points according to the computer. They delivered my food choice 1 hr later.

Mary2e

You should have gotten upgrades... both room type AND access to the club, or breakfast if they couldn't give you access to the club.

In other words, more of the same from this hotel.